The Corona Virus and Care Homes That Kill

Of Canada's 5 million plus over 65's, only six or seven percent are in care facilities, yet those in care facilities account for almost half of Canada's Covid19 deaths.

So if you want to be rid of Granny in a hurry, put her in a care home.

Since viruses are not spontaneously created, we can infer that Covid19 is killing so many in Canada because a small proportion of the nation's old people are incarcerated in care facilities and nursing homes where the staff bring the corona virus to work with them.

Among other things, this suggests that national differences in covid19 deaths likely depend in large part on differences in quality of care home management. Where, as in Canada, many care home workers are part-timers, on minimum wage and without fringe benefits, home inmates are exposed to an unnecessarily large number of employees, some of whom work part-time at more than one care home. Such conditions minimize professionalism among workers while maximizing the risk of infection being introduced to care homes from the outside community and being transmitted from one home to another.

Almost certainly better regulation of care homes and better working conditions for care home workers would have spared Canada a large proportion of virus deaths. Instead of shedding crocodile tears for the elderly dead while imposing lock-downs on the entire community and thereby destroying the economy, government ministers should be acting to bring about reform in the care home industry.

Related:
WSJ: Coronavirus Strikes at Least 2,100 Senior Facilities Across U.S., Killing 2,300 People
NBC News: 2,500 Long-term care facilities in 36 US states are battling coronavirus cases
Ryan McMaken: In March, US Deaths From COVID-19 Totaled Less Than 2% Of All Deaths
The Spectator: How deadly is the coronavirus? It’s still far from clear
CBC: As many as 34,000 Ottawans could have COVID-19
Zero Hedge: "No Hope": Canada's Nursing Homes Prepare For Mass Death
Station Gossip: Three major nursing home companies are DENIED tests for residents - despite spate of deaths from suspected outbreaks